Monday, April 22, 2013

Chess is all about fun and is surely a community-friendly activity and sport. This special video shot by Chess Blog friend Lisa Suhay of www.NiceChess.net demonstrates that chess is a school-carnival-friendly offering. Suhay shot this lovely video at Larchmont Elementary School’s Spring Carnival, Norfolk, VA where Norfolk Initiative for Chess Excellence was asked to participate for the second year in a row.

Suhay told Chess Blog, "Last year some folks thought we were going to go out there and sit all alone at the chess tables, amidst bounce houses, rides, games and other wild attractions. When I suggested offering chess at the Larnchmont Elementary School's Spring Carnival last year a lot of people thought it would be an epic fail. Instead, we proved chess is just plain EPIC! So here we are again, Spring 2013, to prove it wasn't just a one-off. The game and the players didn't disappoint."

Suhay says, "It wasn’t a fluke. This year we were completely overrun. We could have set out double the number of tables and still been full to capacity. I believe this speaks very well for Norfolk Public Schools’ potential for creating a chess community. It shows the impact we can have on the community when we engage the community with events that bring in chess visionaries, films and events as we did with Brooklyn Castle/Pobo Efekoro and Phiona Mutesi."

"It’s also something to pass on to other districts looking for ways to bring chess into their mainstream activities," she says.

Well, we couldn't agree more! All the best to Lisa Suhay and her team for spreading this love of chess.